Christine Schäfer's portrayal
of Lulu at Glyndebourne has even now gone down in the history
books – and having been present at the Proms performance in
1996, I can see (and hear) why. Nice to have her back in the
Bergian 'advert' for his opera, the
Lulu Suite.

It has to be said the hall filled
up considerably after the interval for the Mahler. Is Berg really
still so frightening for Londoners? It was also good to hear
the RPO on such good form – the challenge clearly raised their
game. The opening, a silken web of strings, led to an account
in which Gatti's ear for textural
delineation was demonstrated fully. A positively radiant arrival
point crowned a 'Rondo: Andante and Hymn' that was highly perfumed
without losing any clarity at all.

The post-Romantic intensity
of the Ostinato movement moved us closer to the world of Schoenberg's
Pelleas und Melisande, but
it wasSchäfer
who stole the show in Lulu's Song. Her sound is positively lovely,
and it loses nothing of its allure in the higher register. Every
word emerged with crystal clarity; the melismas
of the second verse were close to perfection. The lurid colours
of the Variations separated this from the Suite's finale, an
Adagio crowned by the Countess Geschwitz' erotically tinged farewell to Lulu. The orchestra
prepared the way expertly, emphasizing the aching intervals,
the orchestral 'scream' perfectly together. It was left to Schäfer
to give radiant voice to grief. Wonderful.

Is it possible there was more
rehearsal time allotted to the Berg than to the Mahler? There
were certainly some rough corners. Cellos attempted to be glowing,
yet fell short; there was a false violin entry in the slow movement.
The orchestra looked small, and indeed climaxes (even the big
ones in the third movement) felt scaled-down. This was a Fourth
that tried to be everybody's friend and became nobody's. There
is a brightness to much of the score that seemed lower wattage
than normal here.

The opening of the finale was
marred by some foul tuning towards the end of the slow movement.
The orchestral imitations (of the oxen, for example) were played
down. All this was in contrast to Schäfer's miraculous melding of line, diction and emotion.
Dressed in what looked like tails as opposed to the dresses
(plural) of the first half, the thought crossed my mind she
was trying for the choirboy look. Certainly her description
of the Heavenly environs was a marvel, crowned by her conspiratorial
whisper (superbly controlled) as she told of Saint Cecilia and
her court musicians.